


A Special Case

by AkisMusicBox



Category: Catherine (Video Game), Persona 3
Genre: Caught in the Rain, Club Escapade, Crossover, Don't copy to another site, F/M, Jealousy, Nightmares
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-27
Updated: 2019-09-27
Packaged: 2020-10-29 07:57:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,211
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20793284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AkisMusicBox/pseuds/AkisMusicBox
Summary: Akihiko feels conflicted when he sees Hamuko with one of her old school mates, Vincent Brooks. But, then again, when isn't he feeling conflicted these days?A third party decides it's time for him to get over his indecision.





	A Special Case

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to ActuallyMarina and Adam Abrams from the AkiHam Discord for your help! 
> 
> Just finished Catherine: Full Body and couldn't help but notice some parallels to Akihiko's conflict. Also, considering the [first time we meet Vincent is in P3P](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBxa_dOgJB0), a crossover was necessary!

As Akihiko left the police station, he lamented not bringing his coat. _ It's pouring outside. Guess I'm going to get some endurance training...unless, does the pharmacy carry umbrellas? _ Before he could check, however, he saw Hamuko outside of the door to Club Escapade, nearly soaked to the bone. She spared a moment to shake out her hair and re-do her ponytail before entering. _She can't do that! Not when she looks like...that._

He should go get towels, right? He should try to get her some dry clothes? Or, should he run in after her and keep perverts away?

_Shit._

He bolted into the club.

Fortunately, the club was still fairly empty at this hour. He spied her standing by the bar, speaking with a shaggy, curly-haired man slumped over his beer. By the time he crossed the dance floor, a red drink was slid in front of her by the bartender. "You know she's underage, right?" Akihiko growled to the slumped figure. Hamuko and the curly-haired man turned.

"Senpai!" she greeted. She looked almost pale, and Akihiko couldn't tell if it was the lighting or the cold of the rain.

Through half-closed eyes, the man said, "'S'fine, I know. It's a Shirley Temple."

Akihiko furrowed his brow.

"Ginger ale, cherry syrup, garnish with cherries," she said simply, taking a sip.

"I owe her for hoofin' it out here in the rain," he explained. "And sadly, there's no hot, virgin drinks here."

Something about him saying _hot virgin_ irritated Akihiko to no end. "Then why meet here instead of the coffee shop next door?"

"Senpai..." Hamuko warned before she shivered. "Vincent, this is Akihiko Sanada. Senpai, this is Vincent Brooks. He and I used to attend school together awhile back, though a few years my senior."

The man finished his beer and the bartender replaced it with an incredibly blue drink. "More than a few. And I've gotta hide out in a club like this 'cause if my friends see me drinking things like this, they'd never stop giving me hell." He sipped it with a small smile. "They're more sake and beer fans."

Akihiko had to keep himself from rolling his eyes. _ Why are you sneaking around with a minor and getting drunk in front of her?! _ is what he wanted to say, and nearly did until he noticed Hamuko fish a cherry out of her drink and bite it. The juice shot out of her mouth and splattered on her top. "Shit," she swore.

Brooks grabbed a fistful of napkins and handed them to her. "Nice one," he snorted. She cleaned the mess off of her lip, but no amount of dabbing on her white shirt could remove the stain.

"Damn," she added. _What's going on? I never hear her swear that much._ Her eyes darted back and forth between the two men as if assessing the risk of leaving them alone. "I'm going to go to the bathroom and try to salvage this. You two...small talk. I'll be right back." She left, skirt still clinging to the back of her legs. Akihiko's gaze whipped to Brooks.

"Whoa, whoa man, you've got it all wrong! I'm not - I'm not looking!" he said, holding his hands out defensively. It was then he noticed just how pale Brooks was too, with dark circles under his eyes. "I'm no pervert! I just ran into her here a few weeks ago, and we were catching up."

"You met her here?" he pried.

"Yeah! With some bald monk, he's the one you should interrogate. He drinks and smokes like he's tryin' to die."

Akihiko filed that knowledge away for another time. "And what are you trying to do?"

Brooks sighed. "Figure out how life got so damn complicated. My biggest problem used to be that my English sucked. Had to get over my pride enough to let _her_ help me with it, but she was never mean about it. Like, she's wicked smart, but she's also a dork, so it makes her approachable? Like, you don't know how much of a relief it is that she's still like that."

That hit too close to home for Akihiko's liking. "And what's so difficult about life after school? You go to work, you go home. You...clearly, go to the bar with your friends."

He took a long drink. Akihiko could almost smell how sweet it was. "You work overtime to feed your beer and pizza habit at the bar, you wonder what you're going to do with your life, you want it to change and you want everything to stay the same. You get your girlfriend pregnant, you panic, and you don't have the balls to break it off with the girl you're cheating with. And night after night, you have _nightmares_ that make you feel like you're dying."

Akihiko stared at him wide-eyed. Brooks sunk even lower. "Sorry, kid. The sleep deprivation will do that to ya." He sighed. "I tried to find a place to be alone for a while, and I ran into her here. Somehow, she remembered me and didn't think I was a complete loser, so...she's nice to talk to. She's just nice."

With that, Hamuko returned triumphantly from the bathroom. "Success!" she announced. "Well, I still look like a drowned rat, but at least the stain's gone." A little bit of color had returned to her cheeks. "What have you guys been talking about?"

"English," Akihiko jumped in. "Just...both of us are bad at it."

"Well, I can always tutor," she said, taking another sip of her drink. "But, you're an engineer, right, Vincent? You don't really have to worry about English all too much anymore, do you?"

_Vincent. Just Vincent._

"Well, depends on the clients and the partnership the higher-ups work with," he said. "What're you looking to be when you graduate, Sanada-san?"

"Uh...I...physical therapist?" he offered, deciding that _whatever the Kirijo Group wants me to be_ was likely not a good answer for the current company.

Brooks snorted. "I gotcha. I didn't really know either. Still really don't."

_"_ Knowing _that_ is overrated," she said dismissively. "Being too focused on that closes you off to new opportunities. Some things you've got to keep open."

_Am I...jealous? Of that guy?_

"But what about everything else? What about stuff like soulmates, or is that bunk too? Stuff that...keeps you tied down for reasons that you don't know if are your own or society's?"

_What...is this?_ Akihiko had only ever gotten this philosophical with Shinji, and maybe Mitsuru a time or two. But right in front of him, a guy who couldn't be bothered to shave his face clean and a girl with an impressive amount of goosebumps on her legs were trying to solve life's problems.

_I should leave._

But he stayed there until Brooks finished his blue drink, and a pink one after that. They helped him stumble to a cab in the rain, but couldn't manage to flag one down for themselves, so they walked. "I'm sorry about that, Senpai," she said when they made it to the train. "I think he just needs to be heard. Like, I think he's a lot braver than he thinks he is, and he just needs someone to tell him that he'll be okay."

"Don't worry about it," he said as the cold seeped into his bones. "I just wish we could have found an umbrella _anywhere_ along the way _."_

* * *

Akihiko lifted himself off of the stone floor, a familiar green light bathing it. His head was pounding as if he had fallen, but he couldn't remember how. _Did I get attacked by an enemy?_

He picked himself up, to quickly realize he didn't have his gloves. Or his Evoker. Or clothes besides his boxers. "The _hell?"_

In front of him stood a man-sized sheep, standing on its back legs, with curly hair.

"Sanada?" the sheep asked, bewildered. "You got that bandaid and armband... What're you doing here?"

_Is that... _ "Huh? Brooks? You look like a sheep."

"So do you. That's how it works here," the sheep replied.

"The _hell? _And do you _know_ this place?"

A childish voice rang through the air, chuckling. "Well, well. You two should feel special. He generally doesn't care about people that young, but you seem to be a special case. _She _seems to be a special case. We aren't without sympathy, however. That's why you've got a partner. Ascend the Prison of Titans, and prove yourself. Don't worry, it's only one stage."

"The _hell_ are you talking about?"

Brooks pointed to the wall of blocks, stacked haphazardly and twisted up, far beyond what he could see to the top of. Some of them were pale, others ornately decorated, and some were made of ice. All were so tall Akihiko barely could see over them.

"Doesn't matter now, kid!" Brooks growled. "Right now, we need to climb this thing. We got to jump and pull and push blocks until we find the bell at the top. If we don't, we die."

"Die? The _fuck_ is going -"

_"SCHREEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"_

Behind them, a monster emerged from the inky depths, a massive plush rabbit with soiled fur and an eyeball hanging from one socket, hanging by a bloody thread. Clockwork ground viscera inside of the socket, and a tear in the side of the rabbit revealed a clockwork, and behind that, a throbbing heart.

"XXII" was pinned to the side of its head, fluff sticking out from the entrance and exit wounds.

It roared again.

"SHIT!" Brooks shrieked.

Akihiko's palms grew sweaty as he started to shake. "I don't have my Evoker! How are we supposed to defeat it?"

"Defeat it? We run! Get up the tower and we're outta here! Come on!"

Brooks lead the way, climbing the blocks and re-configuring them in impossible orientations. Every time they climbed up a block connected merely by an edge, Akihiko's stomach lurched, but he couldn't afford to stop. The rabbit was chasing them, knocking down rows and rows of the lower blocks.

Lightning flashed, and Vincent yanked them in the gap between two blocks. A sheet of water poured from above, that Akihiko quickly determined would have washed them off the edge and into the abyss if they hadn't found shelter.

He should have thanked Brooks, but instead, he asked, "Why are we _here? _What's this supposed to do?"

"Hell if I know for sure, but I think it's punishment. I'm cheating on my girlfriend with this...ngh. She's insane. And insanely hot." Brooks scowled at him through his mess of hair. "Are you cheating on Arisato? She's a good kid, man! What the?!"

The rabbit's eyes began to glow and focus on them. "Shit, let's go!" Brooks grabbed his arm and towed him up three levels of blocks as a volley of hairpins darted the row they were at moments ago.

"I'm not cheating on her!" Akihiko said, trying to catch his breath. "We're not even dating, how can I -"

Brooks shoved him off the edge, dropping as well to hang as another volley of hairpins flew in their direction. They shimmied across until they found a clear path, and they charged up a score more stairs. They could hear a bell ringing faintly in the distance, and Akihiko felt a flicker of hope.

"It's gotta be about her!" Brooks said as he started shoving blocks into place. "Look at the pins, man, nobody else does that!" Once Brooks got the next three in place, Akihiko didn't wait to start charging up and arranging them himself, his muscles burning and the shriek melding with the sound of the bell.

Brooks joined him shortly. "Sorry. I'm no one to judge, but going through this shit is hard enough, not knowing why is worse."

The bell was three rows away and deafening.

"Can we just get _out_ of here?!" he growled, and they ascended to the glowing pedestal, a ring suspended from a chain that led to nowhere. Brooks yanked it, and a set of stairs appeared, leading to an ornate church door. They ran up the stairs, and Vincent grabbed the door handle victoriously. "This is the best part." He turned and faced the rabbit, which was now within paw's reach of them.

"Fuck you, you fluffy bastard!" he yelled and shoved the door open. A bright light blinded them for a moment but caused the rabbit to explode. Brooks yanked him into the light.

In the next moment, they were in a church, or the trappings of a church suspended in thin air on a platform. Pillars ringed along the outside of the platform. Empty pews lead up to a confessional at the far end.

"You're not a sheep anymore!" Akihiko exclaimed, somehow less phased by Brooks's pink-polka dot boxers than he anticipated.

"We did it!" he said, punching a fist in the air. "And neither are you." Akihiko was in his red ones, wearing nothing else but his S.E.E.S. armband. His fingers grazed his forehead. _ Even the bandaid. Heh. That's almost funny. Especially after nearly being killed by a bunny. _

"Normally, the platform is filled with others climbing, but this seems to be just for you so...I guess we go in that confessional. Answer the creepy kid's question and we're out." He pointed to the sign next to the confessional that said "Escape".

They crammed into the confessional, but when Vincent didn't get a response from the divider, he went over to the other side. "Geez! So this is what this side's like. So I just gotta ask you a question...and I think this lever will give you the ropes. But there's no like...list of questions. Just a lever. Um...what's your favorite color, red or blue?" Vincent fiddled with the lever. "Do you see the ropes?"

"Nope."

"Jeez. Okay, guess it's gotta be a question related to why you're here? To get to know you better? I dunno...listen, I'm not the one to be judging you, but I'm just trying to get us out of here. Why won't you date Arisato? Are you not into her, or is it something else?" Vincent tried to pull the lever again and heard the gears start to grind. "Okay, okay. We're getting somewhere. It's got to be a choice question."

"That's not even an option, I can't get involved like that. I don't even think I'm capable of that."

"Even I can smell that bullshit, kid. I saw the way you were eyein' her in that soaked uniform."

"The _hell, man,_ I'm not like that, and you shouldn't be either you dirty old man!"

"Come on! You were lookin' at her like you wanted to like protect her and devour her at the same time." He kept messing with the lever. "I've seen puppy dog looks like that before. Alright, how about...if she told you she was dating someone else, would you be happy or sad?" Vincent pulled the lever again. "Dammit! It's close, I felt something come loose. "

"She doesn't have _time_ for stuff like that. And unless they're part of our club, they'd never get what we have to face. Stuff not too dissimilar to this."

"Okay, okay...but you can't be the only dateable person in the club."

"Shit, did the rumor get out of the school?!" _ What the hell? Or is Junpei the one spreading it himself? That little - _

"What? Nah, but, somebody already spread rumors about her and another guy? That's high school for ya."

"I don't understand! Why am I here!? I have been doing everything I can to _protect_ her from this! From the rumors and the distractions and the grief and the pain!"

"Wha? Grief and pain? Kid, things only get that way when you're older. Heh...hehe. Okay, maybe I get why the creepy kid seems to enjoy this. I figured it out. Are you really trying to protect Arisato, or are you trying to protect yourself?"

The ropes dropped.

Akihiko pulled.

* * *

He woke with a start, bolting upright, drenched in sweat. _The hell was that?_ All he could remember is climbing and falling, and then being launched. The visions of a curly-haired sheep were getting blurrier by the minute, and it felt like a nail was being driven through his temples. The shadows cast around his room felt invasive, so he got out of bed and ran downstairs, shivering.

Curled up on the couch in the lounge, Hamuko was reading a book by dim lamplight, curled in a blanket. She sat up as she heard him approach, and she gasped. "Akihiko-senpai! Are-are you okay?"

Relief flooded him when she saw her, pale skin almost glowing in the lamplight, and her pins right where they belonged. "I - I ...had a nightmare," he stammered, approaching her. Her eyes widened, and that's when he realized he was dripping sweat and wearing nothing but his boxers.

"What kind of nightmare does this? Are you sure you're not sick?" She sat him on the couch and pressed a palm to his forehead. It slowed his racing heart. "You're freezing cold." She took the blanket off of herself and wrapped him in it, still heated by the warmth of her body.

"Thanks," he croaked, slightly dizzy. "Why're you...you down here?"

"Reading by candlelight during the Dark Hour sets a nice mood," she explained, pointing to the extinguished candle and novel on the side table. "It's the only way I'm gonna make it through Bronte." She shook her head. "But what are you _doing _down here? Like, you look so rough I don't know how you made it down the stairs."

"Thanks," he said again, in a daze.

"Oh, hush, you know what I mean!" She tugged the blanket tighter around him.

"I'm sorry," he croaked, despair growing inside of him.

"No, don't, I know you're just teasing, but -"

"No. Not that." He couldn't bear to look at her, so his eyes found a safe spot on the cushion. "I'm sorry. I...I woke up, and all I remember properly is that I need to apologize to you. And there was sheep, and I was falling, but mostly you."

"There's _no sheep._ I am concerned about you falling literally _right now _because you're so sick you have bags under your eyes already. That's it, that's all."

"I've been avoiding you. Because I don't know what to do. And that's not fair to you." Even in his delirious state, he could tell he hit the mark as she visibly winced.

She recovered quickly. "Unimportant right now." She stood and helped him lay down. "You need to rest. Lay down for a bit, and I'll help you to your room when you recover." He watched her with concern as she left his side, but it passed when she curled up in the chair next to the couch. "I'll leave the light on. No sheep. Not even wool. I guarantee every piece of fabric in this room is cheap and synthetic."

He almost asked her to come back, but in his state, he'd risk making her cold again. _The goosebumps are finally gone._ He managed a chuckle as he closed his eyes.


End file.
